1st week reflections

So I've finished my first week of my Junior year. Btw that in itself blows my mind. This will be my 3rd year of college that means (if all goes as planned) I only have one year after this, 3 semesters after this one and one more internship. All of that is out of my realm of understanding.

I have several funny profs and one really nice one that I'm sure I'll enjoy. I also have one dry but funny prof and one BORING prof. Hopefully it gets better for that class. It's the basics of digital imaging...I wish it wasn't a required class. One of my profs (who is a friend of mine) just got married so I actually won't see him for a while. But all in all this semester will be a lot of work but I think it will be a very interesting one as well.

I have an apartment. My first ever. The first week I moved in it felt hotter than Florida (imagine that). But now it is in the high 60's/low 70's and that is just too cold for the end of the "Summer." I like having my own room. It's already partially a mess with my books and graphic design work but oh well.

The part of the room used for studying...hahahaha.

Coco likes his new home and his new friends.

I finally saw (500) Days of Summer. It was amazing!!!!!!! See it. Right now. You still here? Oh well. See it sometime. It's sweet and really really creative. I also saw Miyazaki's new work, Ponyo. It was cute. Like My Neighbor Totoro cute. So if you into sugary sweet goodness see it.

I am very happy to be back in the CRU community here and I have already started to carve niches out for myself. I have already made one video, organized and ran the slides, and met so many new people. My head could explode but it would be a good explosion (if that is possible). In this time being back I find that I can talk to new people a lot easier. Which is a huge blessing because I used to be so anxious about talking to new people. I'm pretty sure my summer helped me with that. I really like meeting new people and getting them plugged into community.

Even through all this God is definitely teaching me about disappointment. Cuz once again I'm forming my own plans and that dark feeling of disappointment shows up when the don't work out. So it's learning that my plans aren't all that important and that whatever happens is within God's plan and I should be happy with that.

So this week was full of lessons and readjusting and since I like lists here is my list of things for the first week.
1. Open windows + fans = rain flying into room soaking bed
2. When people walk into a room with no desk they assume you're lazy
3. English dubbing does not do justice to Miyazaki films especially when you throw in a Cyrus and a Jonas into the mix.
4. Having roommates who like to cook is a good thing.
5. Rain + flipflops = don't even try to get to class on time.
6. Video editing late into the night isn't conducive to waking up early for a 8:30 class.
7. There is a song on my ipod for every mood.
8. If staring into the sky and walking to class without running into anything was possible I would do it all the time.
9. If you don't want more responsibility don't pull off a 2.5 minute video in 3 days.
10. Some profs are serious when they tell you that their nickname is "King."

Disconnection

So I'm back in much cooler Columbia, MO. It's impressive how much a few degrees can feel infinitely cooler. I do have to say that I am feeling a slight disconnect. I had lunch with friends and there were no hugs...I gave/recieved hugs all the time in Orlando so part of my heart was sad. I'm also feeling a disconnect from God. I've been so exhausted/on the road the past few days and I haven't gotten to just dive into the Word and talk to God. I need to be able to feel connected at all times (I'll blame part of this on my awful laryngitis/sinus cold - I tend to whine and be emotional when I'm sick and then I feel like I'm not honoring God as much as I should).
I had an awesome send off on Thursday with a messy cubicle, a mohawk and a sweet cake.

My cube

My entrance into by goodbye party

My cake. One of the guys I worked with decided on the words because of my rotoscoping.

God really blessed me with sweet people who cared about me and I miss them so much already. I tied up loose ends with video projects and taught my boss how to apply "remove grain" to HD JESUS Film. And my pal the flying monkey came home with me :D I didn't truly cry until I was with my family on Saturday.
Speaking of family they came on Friday and they took a tour of the J Film and were really impressed. It really is a hidden treasure of the ministry world. We went out to sushi with the Warneke's who were kind enough to let me stay with them all summer. We went to Downtown Disney to finish off the night. It was a lot of fun just to spend time with them...wandering. The next day we went for an early morning visit to the beach and to Ron Jon. I'm pretty sure the beach was my brother's favorite part of the whole day. We went to Universal Studios afterwards. It was good to finish off the summer with something touristy. :P

My brother at the beach.

The family at Universal

I was really really blessed by my time at the JESUS Film this summer. I learned so much about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, myself, loving others, and especially I learned a lot about video. I was so blessed by everyone one I had contact with and I pray that this won't be the last time I see them. I would like to thank YOU. To those who have prayed for me. To those who have supported me financially. To those who have read this and laughed with me. I thank you for joining in this journey. It's not over yet. It's just being diverted for a little while. To Ohio. I'm sure it'll be interesting.

Tired thoughts

My final day is today. We are celebrating with lunch, a party, and seeing GI Joe at midnight. Today I filmed stuff for a video for my old youth group and went to a concert with Cassie, this being my last time seeing her this summer.
The video looks good....or what I filmed did. I put it on my computer tomorrow and I'll start editing it and give it to Justin next week. (I heard you read this Justin so this is me letting you know :P) I have officially finished all of my projects (they are not all finished but my part is done). I taught Mikey all the things he needs to know and hopefully all will run without a hitch while I'm gone.
As far as the concert...God blessed me. I enjoyed Closure to Moscow, their whole band was fun to watch. And here's where God was cool. I was telling Cassie how I didn't want to get crushed. The next band was Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and I heard stories of their fans. Also any band that all the members have beards and/or long hair you don't really wanna mess with their fans. Well I didn't want to die before my last day at work and I wasn't in the mood to get pushed around during that show. I, honestly, just said out loud "Oh Lord give me protection." And...for the first time ever I didn't even get touched. A guy ended up behind me, put an arm on either side of me and managed to keep any crazy fans from pushing on me (also blocking most people from touching Cassie as well). So blessed. The show was pretty good. Dallas Taylor yelled in Cassie's face then laughed at her when she turned away. I laughed as well. Emery did a great job and I love Toby, Devin, and Josh so so so much. Josh cracked me up the whole time. They played my fav song from their new CD and a few of my fav old songs, so I was pleased.
I would have pics but I left my camera in Cassie's car cuz I'm scatter brained.
That's all for now. Pics and other stuff later. I'm gonna go retrieve me camera now.

Devin (one of the vocalists for Emery and me.

Josh (the screamer for Emery) and me.